13 things that begin with H

1. Haiku: The first non-rhyming poetry form I remember encountering. I don’t write much of it, but it’s distilled emotion appeals to me.
2. Hail: Ice from the sky is just amazing…and it can be beautiful, when viewed from within shelter.
3. Hair Coloring: Like this is a surprise? I haven’t seen much more than an inch of my “real” hair color since I was fifteen, and I’ve been through some really scary colors, including once dying it gothic black. (It was TOO dark for me.) Now? I’m really loving the Special Effects Atomic Pink and Cherry Bomb woven through my Aveda Chocolate hair.
4. Halloween: Even if I don’t dress up, I love Halloween. I love decorating the house, carving pumpkins, and being known as one of the houses on my street where kids can get the good candy.
5. Harpsichords: I like the kind of buzzy, reedy sound they have, and I love the way they blend with a gut-stringed cello.
6. Harriet the Spy, by Louise Fitzhugh: I don’t remember when I first read this book, but I loved it from the first, and I totally identified with Harriet. I still have a box of notebooks, and I still make observations about people and places. Also, like her, I have a special fondness for using my middle initial.
7. Hats: I’ve been a “hat person” ever since my grandmother first uttered the words, “Put a hat on that baby!” as my mother was taking me to the beach one day. My collection now includes fedoras in three colors, newsboy caps in plaid velvet, and a bouquet of berets, among others.
8. Haunted Houses: I’m okay with the carnival version of these, but I really mean old, forlorn, unloved houses – and even warehouses – because somehow they speak to me. I used to ride my bike to a cafe job I had one summer, and I’d always leave early enough to have the time to stop by a house in Willow Glen with an overrun front garden, complete with reflecting pool and cherub fountain. As well, the Maxwell House in Georgetown, CO, holds a special fascination for me, though my former teacher who still owns property in that city assures me it’s owned by a perfectly normal, nice family.
9. Herbals: An herbal is a sort of almanac of herbs, but it contains notes and lore as well as fact. I love my herbal, both as a resource, when writing, and just as a bathroom book. It’s the kind of thing you turn to when there isn’t a net connection available, and you desperately need to know why wormwood is toxic, or what hyssop really does.
10. Hiding Places: Big enough for a person, like the wardrobe in the middle room at my grandmother’s house was when I was five, or small enough for just a letter or a piece of jewelry, like the hidden drawers in our headboard, I like hiding places. I like the natural version, too, those special sunny rocks at the perfect bend in a creek, or that little hollow in the cliff just past the tide pool on a favorite beach, or even just a corner of the back yard, where there’s honeysuckle and a tall tree – hiding places are amazing.
11. Home: I tend to be a nesting-type person, so while home isn’t a specific geographic location, it’s definitely a place I need to be as often as possible. Home isn’t just a house, either, it’s a house that has life and love inside its walls, and acts as a personal haven to those who dwell within.
12. Honey: Drizzled over hot cornbread, stirred into steaming tea, or just sucked from a spoon, honey is sweet without being cloying, and carries with it the essence of flowers, and something a little dark as well. Sugar is convenient. Honey is magic.
13. Hula Hoops: I’ve never been particularly good at using them, but I’ve always loved trying. As a child, my friends and I all went through hula hoop phases, either trying to spin them on our hips, or using them in place of jump ropes. More recently, a hula hoop became a training tool when I took Cleo through a basic agility class – she’ll jump through hoops for the right reward.